Disposophobia Meaning, Causes and Treatment

Throughout our life we ​​acquire objects in one way or another to which we feel a greater or lesser attachment. An inheritance, a gift with great sentimental value or any object that has been able to accompany us for a long time can make us feel intense discomfort when we get rid of it.

Even so, we are aware that we cannot definitively keep everything we are acquiring throughout our lives. Therefore, we are getting rid of those objects that have become obsolete, they do not serve us, etc.

However, there are people to whom this process causes intense discomfort and are unable to carry it out, giving rise to a problem called disposophobia. If you want to know more about it, continue reading this Psychology-online article, in which we will talk about the Disposophobia: meaning, causes and treatment.

1. Meaning of Disposophobia
2. Disposophobia symptoms according to diagnostic classifications
3. Causes of Disposophobia
4. Disposophobia treatment

Meaning of Disposophobia

If you ask what is the disposophobia, it refers to the Pathological and compulsive accumulation of objects and belongings that a person carries out before the impossibility of getting rid of them. The person suffering from disposophobia is not able to get rid of such belongings, either throwing them away, selling them, giving them or recycling them. Therefore it tends to accumulate them in a disorganized way.

The accumulation is such that it can occupy large spaces in the person's house, unusable leaving some rooms unusable. In addition, according to accumulated objects there can be situations and/or unhealthy scenarios. In this sense, animals whose status is of deterioration can also be accumulated.

This whole situation leads the person to present Social relationship problems with family and friends. In addition, unhealthiness situations can cause neighborhood conflicts. Therefore, the person suffering from disposophobia can present, to a greater or lesser extent, social isolation.

Characteristics of people with Disposophobia

People who suffer from disposophobia, or syndrome to accumulate things, can also show, following Rodríguez, J.TO. (2014)^[1]: perfectionism, procrastination, indecision or difficulties in planning or organization, among others.

Although the person can accumulate any type of belonging, the truth is that the most common is that newspapers, old clothing, bags, books, appliances and documents accumulate newspapers, bags, bags, books, books, books, books, bags, bags and documents.

Disposophobia symptoms according to diagnostic classifications

Disposophobia is collected in the main diagnostic classifications. Both the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association)^[2] like CIE-11 (World Health Organization)^[3] collect this problem with the name of accumulation disorder. In both classifications, the disorder is included in the compulsive obsessive disorder category and related disorders.

The accumulation disorder must meet a series of criteria to be diagnosed. Following the DSM-5 classification, the symptoms of disposophobia are:

• Persistent difficulty of getting rid or giving up possessions regardless of whether these possessions have real value or not.
• The difficulty is due to a perceived need to save things and discomfort that appears when the person gets rid of these things.
• Since the person feels difficulty getting rid of their belongings, it begins to accumulate them so that the rooms of the house are full of belongings.
• Accumulation causes clinically significant discomfort or social, labor or other functioning areas.
• The accumulation is not due to the effects of other diseases such as cerebrovascular diseases, brain injuries, etc.
• The accumulation is not best explained by the symptoms of other disorders such as obsessions of obsessive compulsive disorder or the loss of energy of major depressive disorder, for example.

Disposophobia variables

Within the DSM-5 classification we are following, accumulation disorder can have different types of variables. Let's see which:

• With excessive acquisition: The patient in addition to not getting rid of belongings, acquires things that he does not need or for those who do not have the necessary space at home.
• With good or acceptable introspection: The patient recognizes that beliefs and behaviors related to accumulation are problematic.
• With absence of introspection: (or with delusional beliefs) the patient is convinced that beliefs and behaviors related to accumulation are not problematic.

Causes of Disposophobia

¿Why a person is accumulative? As we have pointed out, the main characteristic of accumulation disorder is the difficulty getting rid of belongings. ¿Why this difficulty appears? The causes of the disposophobia proposed in Rodríguez, J.TO. (2014) For the appearance of these difficulties are the following:

• The perception of aesthetic utility or value.
• A strong sentimental attachment to objects.
• Fear of eliminating important information and its negative consequences.

Disposophobia treatment

To understand the treatment of disposophobia we must take into account that until the last DSM-5 classification it has been considered as a type of compulsive obsessive disorder. In this framework, the intervention strategy is similar in the two disorders.

The intervention strategies used for the disposopHobia treatment have been:

• Cognitive behavioral therapy: In this one you can use exposure therapy, cognitive therapy to treat irrational ideas and beliefs and strategies that are aimed at improving patient organization strategies.
• Pharmacological therapy: will accompany behavioral cognitive therapy.

However, as we always indicate, the case It must be valued by a professional that determines the peculiarities and chooses the best intervention for that particular case.

This article is merely informative, in psychology-online we have no power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Disposophobia: meaning, causes and treatment, We recommend that you enter our clinical psychology category.